Morning arrived and I woke up feeling more energized than yesterday. Despite almost dying and other matters, I had successfully gone through the first day since coming back from the future.
I pulled myself up from the bed and looked around my room, the subtle light coming through the window gave it a peaceful feeling. As I stood up, my eyes fell on the boxes sprawled around the room and a frown formed on my lips.
When I arrived here last night, all my stuff from the previous apartment was already sent here, but because I was a bit tired, I decided to leave unpacking for my future self.
I should have done it yesterday.
I opened one of the boxes and analyzed its content, it was different from the other boxes around it which were all plain brown. The box I opened was red and had the academy stamp on it — it was a parcel from the academy.
Inside the box were a few familiar items, a small wristwatch, a plain-looking sword, and a tight-looking fit meant to be worn for training. Since I was already familiar with all of the items, I picked up the watch and wore it first.
A sharp pain pierced my wrist as if penetrated by a needle, but the pain quickly subsided and a holographic screen was projected in front of me.
Name: Ian
Class: High Class C
Rank: 356 of 2379
Team: ***
The all-purpose academy smartwatch had many uses, and showing your real-time evaluation within the academy was one such feature.
356 of 2379… I guess it’s not too bad.
Since there were only 900 first-year students, it went without saying that the ranking was based on all students who were currently attending the academy.
Multiple factors went into calculating the rankings so even someone like Lily wouldn’t be in the top 100 despite her incredible strength.
As I played around with the wristwatch, I decided to open some news articles and confirm the current state of affairs around the world. The top trending news articles were practically the same as the last iteration so I didn’t have any complaints.
#TopTrending
[Kingdom of Eza Issues Desperate Plea for Increased Food Aid Amid Escalating Demon Attacks]
[Global Summit Set to Kick Off December 8th: Anticipating Key Agendas and Outcomes]
[Rezen Academy Headmaster Praises Incoming Class as 'Strongest in Years' As Their First-Year Journey Begins]
…
The kingdom of Eza.
Its downfall would become the weakest link to humanity’s power. At the current moment, every kingdom around the world has already sent some sort of military aid, but it wouldn’t be enough to completely repel the demons, so the whole kingdom was a free-for-all.
It wasn’t apparent at the current time but when the war began, the area became a significant strategic location for both demons and humans so we would eventually come to regret standing by and watching it fall.
Incidentally, that was also the location where my squadron was wiped out by the evil god, White. Instead of finding one of his royal Guards, we were suddenly ambushed by an even greater threat. There was only one explanation for this…
There was a traitor among us.
Or more accurately, one of the members of the [Strategic Table] betrayed us. It wasn’t something I could easily investigate since at this point in time, many of the members are already influential members in their respective kingdoms.
I will find a way…
I walked away from the boxes as I brushed the thought to the back of my mind. I should be more worried about my time here at the academy since I will now be competing with the best of the best in our year group.
I started to go through my morning routine and finally finished preparing for class then quickly left my dorm room.
As for the boxes… I will do it later.
It didn't take long to navigate through the complex buildings and find my first class. Even though I was in the middle classes during the past iteration, since we shared most of the facilities with all the other classes and year groups, I was familiar with all of them.
I arrived at the door of the classroom and the lively sound of students chattering reached me from outside. As I opened it, the loudness of the voices assaulted my ears followed by a pause and complete silence.
I walked into the classroom while all the students turned to face me as they scrutinized my every move. I acted oblivious to the gazes as I walked up the sloped stairs and went to the back.
“Isn't he the green-eyed guy?”
“Yeah, the student that beat the Scarlet Arsenal.”
“He's got messy hair, it's gotta be him.”
I could hear whispers around me, but really they were just talking normally so their voices reached everyone in the classroom. The previous noise suddenly returned, but I could tell most of them were talking about me as they threw glances at me.
As I reached the back seats, I spotted a familiar face and approached them.
“Hey.”
I gave a greeting as I sat next to them. The student turned around with squinted eyes and his crimson eyes analyzed my face. He suddenly opened his mouth in surprise and spoke up,
“Ah. You are that kid that almost died!”
I was glad someone could tell exactly what happened but still, he didn't need to say it like that. Thankfully the other students didn't seem to have heard him, but they were bound to find out sooner or later, so I wasn't bothered.
“Right. I'm Ian, just Ian.”
I reached out my hand and faced him with a smile. He didn’t hesitate as he reached out to grab my hand and responded,
“Oh, so you are also a commoner. Haha. I'm Roran, nice to meet you.”
I gave a wry smile as I nodded. His blunt way of speaking was a bit unsettling. Normally, being called a commoner was very disrespectful so it's not something you can go around saying to people.
The only people that said that type of stuff were people with actual power.
I looked around the students in the classroom, since the back seats were more elevated, I could see everyone without the need to turn my head too much.
A lot of them were from influential families within the empire and even those from other kingdoms. All this in just one classroom.
The higher classes were divided into 3, namely Higher class A, B, and C. The middle and lower classes were divided the same way. According to the academy, the division wasn't based on anything so it was meant to be completely random.
In the next moment, the classroom suddenly turned silent and a professor finally entered the classroom. Everyone watched her enter with envious looks as they began to mutter,
“Wow, it’s the scarlet Arsenal”
“Yeah, the one that lost to that student.”
“Maybe she’s not that strong?”
Eliana’s face was all smiles till the comments reached her ears and the corner of her mouth started to twitch, but because she was at fault during the selection exams, she couldn’t say anything back and simply ignored them.
“Um. Good morning everyone, I’m Eliana Bloodthron and I will be in charge of this class for —”
She suddenly paused and her eyes widened in surprise. I was also a bit surprised, but it seemed it was a much bigger blow on her side. She was currently looking at me at the back of the classroom as if she was seeing a ghost.
“Why’d she stop?”
“Huh.”
The other students began to turn their heads around in confusion, but as if suddenly realizing this, Eliana spoke up in a more serious tone, grabbing everyone's attention,
“R-right. I will be in charge of this class so I look forward to working with you.”
Oblivious to her distress, the students all let out sounds of joy at the thought of working with the so-called strongest rookie for the next three years. Knowing the headmaster, he probably chose her to be in charge of this specific class because of the incident that happened.
I will have to make her stronger somehow.
“Oh, right. Since it’s only the first day, the classes will be shorter so think of them as just introductions to the professors. I will be in charge of teaching magic theory by the way.”
She glanced toward me as if gauging my reaction and immediately flinched when I returned her gaze, but after a few moments, her face gained color again as if she had suddenly thought of something, and her confidence returned,
“Right, since it’s only an introduction, let me make a small lecture.” She turned around and grabbed a digital pen from the whiteboard behind her. She then started to jolt something with neat handwriting as if she were writing inside a notebook.
Authority
Special Skill
Unique skill
“I’m sure most of you know what this means by now, but I will explain it anyway. Think of your authority as a law in magic that only you can break, and although some may have similar authorities, no two authorities are the same.”
She’s surprisingly good at this.
I never had the privilege of being taught by her even though I was in the middle class so this was my first time seeing her in action.
“…This brings us to unique skills. These skills stem directly from your authority as either an extension of said authority or as a way to assist you in utilizing it. It’s called unique because you are the only one who can use it.”
Roran on my side was scribbling down notes as fast as she was speaking while nodding to himself in understanding — or not. If I remember right, he had the worst scores when it came to written tests, so I felt a bit sad for him.
“…Then as for special skills, well. These are mostly rewards from dungeons so you can even buy them on the market from clans and stuff. A common one everyone knows is the mass-produced skill, [status].”
When a child in the empire turns 5 years old, they are legally required to learn this skill no matter their circumstance, whether it’s a kid living on the streets or the kid of some rich noble.
Because of this skill, the learning process of magic became that much easier.
It didn’t seem like Eliana was done with her presentation as she gave me a few glances before continuing,
“Y-you see, there are special individuals whose authority can directly protect them from dying.”
“Mmh? Is it like auto-casting?”
“Probably…”
This was now new territory to the students so they began to ask questions in confusion, Eliana seemed happy as she answered with a bright smile,
“That’s right. Auto-casting is one of the ways your authority can protect you, but some are more offensive than that,” she looked up at me as if this entire lesson was directed toward me and took a deep breath.
I see where this is going…
“You see, I also have one that activates whenever I get injured. S-so I can hardly even control myself sometimes…”
Is she really trying to justify almost killing me?
“Wow, as expected of the scarlet Arsenal.”
”Damn, does that mean she can’t be ambushed while sleeping?”
“Yeah, but dude why the hell do you look so disappointed!?”
I shook my head as a small sigh escaped my mouth, at this point an apology would have been more than enough to soothe my anger but she seemed to think she was above that. I guess since I was technically related to Lily, maybe she didn’t want to destroy the image of her clan by bowing down to a nobody like me.
[Purple] was a very prideful clan after all.
Meanwhile, Roran on my side seemed to be rereading what he had already written down and even started mumbling to himself, but as if something suddenly clicked he raised his hand and asked in a blunt tone,
“Oh, is that why you almost killed Ian!?”
“Huh?”
Most of the students seemed taken aback as they looked at him with disgust in their eyes, but the oblivious Roran only looked at Eliana who seemed shaken up and didn’t even know what to say,
“I-I didn’t… T-that’s not what. I wasn’t going to kill him.”
“Oh, really? Hahaha, could have fooled me. As expected of the Scarlet Arsenal.”
Roran’s reply might have seemed sarcastic to the others, but he was probably honestly surprised. The other students growled at him as the class was filled with killing intent from all directions.
“R-right…”
Eliana replied meekly to his cheery voice while trying not to face me. She was probably thinking that her plan had flopped because of Roran, but unfortunately, I wasn’t even mad anymore. She continued to talk about authorities and skills, but since they were all things I already knew about, I wasn’t even listening.
Her time finally finished, but before she could leave, she left us a message.
“Ah, right, by the way, you should form teams of 4 before the end of the week. Make sure it’s a well-balanced team since you will be working with them the whole semester. You should also decide on a class leader by the end of the month.”
She disappeared into the hallway, and the students immediately started talking with their friends to presumably form teams.
So it finally begins.
In truth, this was the first test students had to pass at the academy — team formation. If you chose teams based on friendships, you are more likely to have a hard time along the way, but since most of the students don’t know each other, it was the only plausible way they could form teams.
That is unless someone could lead the class and create teams that are suitable for everyone, but unfortunately, the academy won’t tell anyone about this.
‘Make teams before the end of the week’ and ‘choose a class leader by the end of the month’, because of such a delivery, any normal person would prioritize team formation rather than actually choosing a leader. It was simple logic.
Any normal person that is…
“Hello, everyone.”
Everyone’s attention was suddenly drawn back to the front of the classroom where a lone student now stood there with a confident smile on his face. His brown hair covered one of his eyes and his left eye scanned the room of students.
“Firstly, I am declaring myself as class leader, I’m sure everyone is fine with it, right?”
He spoke in a voice filled with charisma and confidence and the students could only watch in silence, he was, after all - a noble among nobles. It wasn’t only because of his position that the students kept quiet, but because they believed there was no one more suited for the role.
The son of Khal who is the current military commander of the Frein Empire.
A future member of the [strategic table] and one of the best brains in the empire.
Dante Eliv.
I didn’t have anything against him, nor did I suspect he was the traitor in the previous iteration. He was indeed the best suited to lead the classroom, but unfortunately, I wasn’t going to let him…
I lifted my hand and my voice reverberated throughout the quiet classroom,
“I object.”
